17th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C, 2010)

Entrance	Praise to the Lord, the almighty
Kyrie	Taizé Kyrie I
Gloria	Coventry Gloria (Peter Jones)
Psalm	On the day I called (Daniel Bath)
Gospel Acclamation	Advent Gospel Acclamation (Andrew Wright), with chanted verse
Preparation of the Gifts	Seek ye first
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	German Mass (Schubert, arr. Proulx)
Our Father	(Estelle White)
Agnus Dei	Hurd Mass (Bob Hurd)
Communion	Blest are they, the poor in spirit (David Haas)
Postcommunion	Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (J.S. Bach)
Recessional	Holy God, we praise thy name

With the Lord’s Prayer at the heart of today’s Gospel reading, we gave the prayer greater prominence during the Communion Rite by singing it to the well-known and much-loved setting by Estelle White. There's an irony here — we don’t normally sing the prayer, precisely because of our Lord’s words in St Luke’s Gospel: Say this when you pray. There are prayers which are incomplete if you don’t sing them: the words Alleluia, Hosanna, Gloria for instance, are, biblically speaking, all parts of songs. The Lord’s Prayer, however, is inherently prose rather than song.

It made sense to sing it today, though, reinforcing the link between the words we had heard during the Liturgy of the Word, and the same words uttered in prayer, when sometimes we might rattle them off without pausing to make the connection.

16th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C, 2010)

Sunday, 18 July 2010

Entrance	All are welcome (Marty Haugen)
Kyrie	Kyrie Eleison from Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Gloria	Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Psalm	Ps 14 (Stephen Dean/Laurence Bévenot)
Gospel Acclamation	Advent Gospel Acclamation (Andrew Wright), with chanted verse
Preparation of the Gifts	Will you come and follow me (John L Bell)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	German Mass (Schubert, arr. Proulx)
Agnus Dei	Hurd Mass (Bob Hurd)
Communion	Forget not what God has done (Marty Haugen)
Postcommunion	O Sacrum Convivium (Giovanni Croce, 1557-1609)
Recessional	O Christ the same (Timothy Dudley-Smith)

Today’s Mass was the occasion for a diocesan celebration, led by Bishop Terence, in thanksgiving for the work of the Sisters of the Holy Family of St Emilie, soon to leave the Diocese after thirty-seven years. Sr Anne O’Shea has been in Salford for thirty-six of those thirty-seven years, for the last twenty-five as Parish Sister and Sacristan here in the Cathedral parish. Timothy Dudley-Smith’s O Christ, the same, set to the tune of Danny Boy, is a favourite of hers. ‘Retirement’ probably isn’t the right word for Sr Anne’s move to Ireland, but we wish her peace and long happiness.

The Gospel reading featured our Lord being welcomed into their home by Martha and Mary, and this prompted the choice of opening hymn, and, indirectly, Croce’s O Sacrum Convivium. It was sung by the choir under the able direction this week of Sabine von Hünerbein, while yours truly had the weekend off to attend a conference.

15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C, 2010)

Entrance	Lord enthroned in heavenly splendour
Kyrie	Kyrie Eleison from Missa Ubi Caritas (Bob Hurd)
Gloria	Missa Ubi Caritas (Hurd)
Psalm	Ps 68 (Stephen Dean/Ian Forrester)
Gospel Acclamation	Advent Gospel Acclamation (Andrew Wright), with chanted verse
Preparation of the Gifts	The Servant Song (Richard Gillard)
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	German Mass (Franz Schubert, arr. Proulx)
Agnus Dei	Hurd Mass (Bob Hurd)
Communion	Eat this bread (Taizé)
Postcommunion	Love Divine (Howard Goodall)
Recessional	Father, Lord of all creation

The second line of our opening hymn was first begotten from the dead, the title accorded to our Lord by St Paul in today’s second reading. The Gospel reading, the story of the good Samaritan, gave us several other of our musical selections, including the hymn at the Preparation of the Gifts, our recessional hymn (Give us grace to love as brothers / All whose burdens we can share) and – reflecting the love which the disconcerting lawyer reluctantly finds written in the Law – Howard Goodall’s setting of Charles Wesley’s Love Divine.

This latter is a scrumptious piece, showcasing the composer’s copious gifts as a melodist. If I were Howard Goodall’s music teacher, though, I might want to make him write it out again with all the barlines in the right place.

14th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C, 2010)

Entrance	When I survey the wondrous cross
Kyrie	Kyrie for 3 voices adapted from Byrd (mcb)
Gloria	Mass for John Carroll (Michael Joncas)
Psalm	Ps 65 (Monaghan/Steel)
Gospel Acclamation	Advent Gospel Acclamation (Andrew Wright), with chanted verse
Preparation of the Gifts	Make me a channel of your peace
Sanctus, Acclamation, Amen	German Mass (Schubert, arr. Proulx)
Agnus Dei	Hurd Mass (Bob Hurd)
Communion	Taste and See (Richard Proulx)
Postcommunion	Jubilate Deo (adapted from the Stabat Mater by Joseph Haydn, 1732-1809)
Recessional	Forth in the peace of Christ we go

The first reading – Rejoice, Jerusalem – and the Responsorial Psalm – Cry out with joy to God, all the earth – gave us our postcommunion piece, adapted from Haydn. It sets a hybrid text from Psalms 65(66) and 99(100) to the finale (Paradisi Gloria) of his Stabat Mater. To my mind the psalm-based text is perhaps better suited to the exuberance of the music – a rollicking choral fugue – than the text originally set by the composer.

The second reading’s the only thing I can boast about is the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ gave us our opening hymn, and the sending out of the seventy-two in the Gospel reading, with their message of peace, prompted the choice of our recessional hymn.

In fact, all three readings mentioned peace, and this suggested our hymn at the preparation of the gifts, sung in the charming arrangement by William Llewellyn published by the RSCM in the excellent collection Sing With All My Soul.